The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-07-13
Bill Nye's Speech.

Z
/ FELLOW CITIZENS 1T has now been
] one hundred and eleven years since the
most successful and most prosperous re-
4 public known thus far TO history, sent
/ forth upon the sultry air its first feeble
/ cry. One hundred and eleven years ago
I this morning, the small red infant known
as American liberty jammed her purple
fists into her watery eyes and made
/ few desultory remarks which were heard
in the uttermost parts the earth.
To-day she is fnll-grown person with
a dignified mien, and has had a statue of
herself taken, which stands in the harbor
of New York, and although she lights up
the country for miles around. with her
tall torch, there is no one who has ever
been able to hold candle to herin the
Liberty business
Those who are to-day within the sound
Of my VOICE, and who are over one hun
dred and eleven years Of age, will per-
haps recall TO their minds the deplorable
condition of things here in our young
and struggling country at that time.
five moved out west in order to secure
more freedom, the venturesome savage
filled us full of arrows till we looked like
tooth-pick holders, and when We come
back for protection, the naughty Briton
assessed US and crushed US beneath the
iron heel of the despot.
Now, wherever the starry banner hangs
out to greet the gentle breeze, all, all are
free Little do We know here in Ameri-
ca. what it is to suffer for freedom. Lib
erty does good business here in the
United States now, and the man who
runs out of freedom shows that he is
shiffless man and poor provider.
Only little over Il century ago we
dared not go ont after dark without
chilled steel corset, for fear that the ma
roon-colored children of the forest might
let the pale, shimmering moonlight in
among our vital organs by means of their
crude tomahawks Then life was indeed
uncertain and disagreeable. People re-
manned at home rather than return to
their houses with holes in themselves
and wildly disheveled brains.
Now man can start out and 90 any
where if hewiil pay his fare.
And so we are marching on What
grand stride it is from the despotism of
century ago, TO the long and short haul
of to-day, What mighty leap from the
barbarism of hundred years ago, to the
glorious sunlight of freedom which we
enjoy now
Where once the slowgoing OK team
and Belcher box wagon crept through
the wilderness, liable 10 be scattered
over the greensward at any moment by
the yelling injun, now the patient news
paper man, the member of Congress and
the Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court, with their coats over their arms,
toll along the level sweep of railroad |
which they assisted to build by means of |
their land grants and moral encourage
ment, looking ever and anon over their |
shoulders for the approach of the yelling |
modern Injun.
Times have indeed changed in the /
past century. A hundred years ago whis- |
XIV was sold at forty cents per gallon and !
every other man was statesman. Now 1
you have to pay fifteen cents for enough /
s.f,
bier, and there hasn't been a speech /
made in the house of representatives for 1
three years that was listened to by any
body but the stenographer.
So liberty, while enlarging her field. /
has not always ameliorated the condition I
of mankind. We are prone to boast over I
the enormous mass of freedom which we
have accumulated here in America, and 1
yet the freedom of the press has been
greatly impaired, if | may be allowed
that expression.
Too much caste has been the result of
recent laws A year ago | held up my
head and mingled with class of men
who to-day refuse to recognize me. They
were then, and are now, of fcourse, men of
wealth and social position but so am |.
allnde to the railway conductors Of
the United States
A year ago knew them from New
York to san Francisco, and associated
with them frequently, allowing myself to
be drawn forward into the smoking-car
to mingle with them, and visit pro and
con-.
But what do | find to-day, find the
same men running on the saine trains,
but they are arrogant, naughty and re
served. One of them placed me on a
side track last spring in the night, in the
midst of a pitiless storm, because tried
TO renew former acquaintance and ride
into Chicago.
He said that could not ride ON my ac-
quaintance with him by no means. but
that would soon be riding on the small
of my back if | did not pay my fare to
the city
And so J remained that night in the
midst of some ancient ruins called Mon